Anti-Movies

IMDb: The Village (2004)

Have you ever left a movie and said to yourself, “There’s two hours of my life I’ll never get back”? That’s how I felt leaving the theater after sitting through this stupid movie. First off I’m not a huge M. Night Shyamalan fan. I liked The Sixth Sense but I didn’t love it nor did I think it deserved any Oscar nominations. I was not a fan of Unbreakable at all, I liked Signs but it was nothing to rave about. So I went into this movie with very small expectations and I was still let down.

Let’s start with a quick overview. What seems like 19 century villagers won’t leave their small village because there are creatures out to get them. They can’t wear, see, or have any red around because that attracts the creatures. Okay, I can buy that. I like creatures just as much as the next person. But then through a series of events, a blind girl has to leave the village to go get medicine for the man she loves. It’s a great set up. She’s going to brave the woods and maybe fight some creatures. I like it.

Here’s where you lose me. Her Dad ends up telling her the truth, that there are no creatures and nothing to fear. NO creatures?!?! That sucks. Why are the older villagers telling everyone that there are creatures? What are they hiding? What’s the twist?

The twist is that at it’s actually modern day and not the 19th century like we were lead to believe. What?! What does this mean? Why are these people living like this? It turns out that a group of the older villagers were sick of the big bad world and decided to make their own perfect world.

Really? I mean really? This is the big twist? The big reveal? You must be kidding me. A bunch of friends lost loved ones and decided to live simpler lives. Are you kidding me?! And to keep people from going to explore the world, they tell them there are creatures out to get them. Can this get any worse? It’s too stupid to believe.

What makes it worse is that M. Night decided to give himself a cameo right at the pivotal part of the movie! It just makes me mad. The best part of the movie was the credits and now I know to never go see another M. Night movie ever again.

The Village: